Incorrupt 

On Ascension Thursday (5/18/23) the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in Gower, Missouri transferred the coffin of Sr. Wilhelmina Lancaster from her grave in the community cemetery to a sarcophagus in their monastery chapel. What would have been a normal act of devotion to their foundress, who died on the same feast four years earlier, ended up being anything but normal. When the simple coffin was opened, it revealed the intact, fully-habited body of Sr. Wilhelmina, appearing virtually unchanged despite having been dead since 2019. According to the National Catholic Register “the body was covered in a layer of mold that had grown due to the high levels of condensation within the cracked coffin. Despite the dampness, little of her body and nothing of her habit disintegrated during the four years.” Moreover, the floral crown, the bouquet, her profession candle, her crucifix, and rosary with which she was buried were intact – even though the coffin’s synthetic lining had completely deteriorated. It appears that Sr. Wilhelmina’s body is what we call “incorrupt.” The Register explains that, “according to Catholic tradition, incorruptible saints give witness to the truth of the resurrection of the body and the life that is to come. The Lack of decay is also seen as a sign of holiness: a life of grace lived so closely to Christ that sin with its corruption does not proceed in typical fashion but is miraculously held at bay.” 

Sr. Wilhelmina Lancaster was born in 1924 and grew up in St. Louis during Jim Crow. From a young age, she desired to enter religious life, and in 1941 she joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a Black Catholic order based in Baltimore, and remained with that community for over 50 years, serving as a teacher, a historian, and a musician. With the dramatic changes that took place in her community after the Second Vatican Council, Sr. Wilhelmina felt a strong desire for a different, more contemplative life in religion. She eventually founded an interracial community dedicated to the Rule of St. Benedict and devoted to the traditional Catholic liturgies. In 2005, the community established its monastery in Gower and currently has over 50 nuns. 

The image of the incorrupt body of the nun, laid out in her traditional black and white habit, started circulating just a few days after another story made headlines. This story was about the decision of the Los Angeles Dodgers to give a “Community Hero Award” during their “10th Annual LGBTQ+ Night” on June 16 to a group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The “Sisters” are in fact a group of men who dress in habits resembling that of Sr. Wilhelmina as a form of mockery, wearing grotesque face paint as they simulate depraved acts at various “Pride” events and exhort their fans to “go, and sin some more.” Their sacrilege compounds the sins they promote, for they denigrate what is holy, that which exists to recall our minds to God. Sr. Wilhelmina clothed herself in the holy habit to give herself entirely in poverty, chastity, and obedience to her beloved Jesus. The current superior of the community, Mother Cecilia, reminds us that “God is real. He protected that body and that habit to enkindle our faith, to rekindle it, to bring people back to the faith.” Sr. Wilhelmina’s incorruption reminds us of the nobility to which we are called as creatures made in God’s image, and how sin is corrosive and corruptive of our human dignity. May this miracle increase our love for sacred things and draw us away from the evil that seeks to capture our hearts, minds, and bodies. 

posted 6/3/23